Good Grief: European Union Wins Nobel Peace Prize

It looks like the Nobel Prize Committee has been hitting the JuleÃ¸l (yule beer) a bit early this year

(Christian Science Monitor) The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the European Union, in a nod to its record of building peace and democracy on a continent long roiled by war — and perhaps as a reminder of the need to stay the course in troubled times.

The choice surprised many speculators, who had widely tipped an East European human rights activist or promoter of inter-religious dialogue. Although a candidate for the award in the past, the EU was regarded as less likely this year because of the widening economic crisis among some states in the 27-member economic and political union.

But ThorbjÃ¸rn Jagland, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, told journalists gathered at the Nobel Institute in Oslo that the union and its forerunners deserved the prize for having “contributed over six decades to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe.” He said the prize was both recognition of the EU’s early role as a peace broker between Germany and France, but also to mark the EU’s recent progress in the reconciliation process in the Balkans.

Interesting

(Tom Chivers) The Nobel Peace Prize this year has been awarded to the European Union. Without wanting to go into whether or not that’s a good idea (it seems a bit strange, even to me), does this confirm at last that the prize’s organisers have stopped worrying so much about whether the recipients are actually deserving, and instead decided simply to pick people who will annoy Right-wingers?

That’s as good an explanation as any other.

I mean, come on. In 2009, Barack Obama while the ink was still wet on his inauguration documents. In 2002, Jimmy Carter (“History’s greatest monster!“). Now the EU, even while the Greek public are burning Nazi flags for Angela Merkel’s visit. In 2007, Al bloody Gore (thanks ArtificialIntelligence in the comments for reminding me of that one). Next year, will it be George Monbiot? Or possibly me? Do I need to start getting a speech together? “I’d like to thank Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School…”

Does the NPP realize that quite a few EU nations were involved in both Afghanistan and Iraq? Or that France and Britain pushed for and participated in the air attack on Libya? Or that rioting and burning cars is a Muslim seasonal sport in France, and sometimes Germany? That France and Germany were selling banned goods to Saddam Hussein? That there’s plenty of anarchist violence in Europe? That there’s plenty of anti-Jewish violence in Europe? How about all the violence at sporting events? The continuing rise of Muslim extremism in Europe?

Based on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think we can expect widespread violence with a year or two. Hey, they gave it to Obama who then went on to expand the war in Afghanistan, attack Libya, and use drone strikes on a constant basis.